The Republican | Dave RobackPatrons look in the windows of Cafeno's Cyber Cafe at 76 Main St., Chicopee, which was closed on Thursday and is under investigation by the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.

CHICOPEE - The state Attorney General’s Office on Thursday closed down an Internet cafe in Chicopee and confiscated some video games as part of an investigation of possible gaming violations, officials said.

Cafeno’s Cyber Cafe, 76 Main St., was closed down Thursday afternoon.

Harry Pierre, deputy press secretary for Attorney General Martha Coakley, said investigators served a search warrant on the cafe and seized some equipment.

Investigators also conducted similar operations at Internet cafes in Fairhaven and Fall River, he said.

“Based on a number of complaints that we have received, our office has begun an investigation into the facilitation of possible illegal gaming at facilities that claim to be ‘Internet Cafes,’” he said.

“Today’s actions are part of that investigation into the legality of three of these alleged gaming establishments located in Bristol and Hampden Counties,” he said.

The cafe was closed Thursday, and its phone line appeared to be out of order. No listing for an owner could be found.

It had been in business since October 2009.

Cafeno’s, like a number of Internet cafes around the area, offered people a chance to purchase time on the Internet. People can do whatever they want to do once they go online, but the cafes encourage patrons to play various games of chance that offer cash prizes.

A 2007 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling, based on a Hyannis case, determined that such cyber cafes are permissible in Massachusetts. Since then, there has been a proliferation in cyber cafes throughout the state.

The rapid growth has caused such operations to come under increased scrutiny as critics wonder how they are different from slot-machine parlors, which are illegal in Massachusetts.

State Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield, who has been critical of the operations in the past, said the state should step up and shut the cafes down.

There is a bill on file in the Statehouse that would restrict the ability of such cafes to operate in Massachusetts, she said.

“In my opinion, it is illegal gambling,” she said.

Rivera said she is critical of the operations because they tend to prey on the elderly and working poor, they are unregulated, and there is little if any records for how much money they take in or how much they should be paying in taxes, she said.

Meanwhile, the city of Springfield has taken steps to shut down the five Internet cafes that have opened there.

Springfield City Solicitor Edward Pikula said Thursday that the city last week issued cease-and-desist order against the five Internet cafes in the city for violation of city zoning laws.

City zoning requires establishments that have more than five video games are considered indoor places of amusement and are required to have special permits to operate.

Each of the operations will have to close immediately and cannot reopen again without approval from the City Council, he said.

Springfield moved to close down the City Cyber Cafe in the Liberty Plaza in August for failure to have proper licensing to operate, namely an entertainment license or a common victualler’s license.

The business was allowed to reopen after it straightened out its permitting, but Pikula said the city continued to investigate how the cafe’s functioned, he said.